After the Squeezing Is Done: What to Do with Your Spent Buds

Regular readers of the High Times Dab Report likely already know about squeezing buds to make rosin—perhaps you currently practice this technique yourself. The uninitiated should check hightimes.com for details on the rosin technique, but the gist is that you apply heat and pressure to weed and hash oozes out. It’s a safe and easy way for anyone with cannabis and a hair iron to make some tasty dabs.

More weed is now getting pressed into hash than you can imagine; commercial operations alone are pressing thousands of pounds of cannabis into rosin dabs every year, plus home users are increasingly experimenting with this method. But what happens to all that pot after it’s been pressed? Are you guys just throwing it away? We hope not.

Here are a few options for what to do with your rosin waste after the squeezing is done.

Make Edibles or Topicals

The process of making rosin hash doesn’t remove all the THC from your buds. It does, however, decarboxylate the cannabis you’re squeezing. That makes it perfect for creating edibles and topicals, which require decarbed weed. Put your squeezed buds into some coconut or olive oil and bring it up to about 180°F for an hour. You can use this oil in food or on your skin as a topical medicine.

Cannabinoid Therapy for Pets

Low-dose cannabis therapy is a great way to help what ails an aging pet. Just like us, dogs and cats can get great analgesic relief, sleep aid and appetite stimulation from consuming THC. Use your spent herb to infuse coconut oil as described above and put a half-teaspoon in your pet’s food. Remember, most pets have much less body weight than people, so a little can go a long way. Start with very small doses and work your way up as needed. Your old pets will sleep better, eat better and feel less pain in their aging joints.

Make Cannabis-Infused Soap

There are many recipes online for making soap at home. The basics go like this: Combine water, lye and oil by dissolving the lye in the water (while following the safety tips for this step!) and then adding it to your oil. In this case, use squeezed herbs to infuse coconut oil, then use the infused oil in a basic soap recipe. Your skin is full of cannabinoid receptors, and medicated soap is another way to enjoy the benefits of cannabis.

Compassion Joints

You squeezed your buds and have lots of great rosin to smoke. So why not pass the leftovers along to the truly needy? Everyone knows someone who is down on their luck, financially challenged or unable to make ends meet. Lots of older people are on very fixed incomes but desperately need the relief and joy that cannabis brings. We challenge you to be compassionate—roll those squished buds up and give them to someone in need. One person’s waste can be another person’s salvation. The smile you get after you hand someone a dozen free rolled joints is priceless.